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Uan Muhuggiag is an archaeological site in
Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
. It was occupied by
pastoralists Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal s ...
during the early- to mid-
Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
. The site is where the Tashwinat Mummy was found, which was dated to around 5600 BP. It now resides in the Assaraya Alhamra Museum in Tripoli.


Location

Uan Muhuggiag is a rock shelter in southwestern Libya in what is now the
Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...
. It is located on the bank of the Wadi Teshuinat, sitting on a plateau in the
Tadrart Acacus The Acacus Mountains or Tadrart Akakus ( ar, تدرارت أكاكوس / ALA-LC: ''Tadrārt Akākūs'') form a mountain range in the desert of the Ghat District in western Libya, part of the Sahara. They are situated east of the city of Ghat, ...
at almost 3000 feet above sea level. The site is approximately 1500 miles west of the
Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...
Valley.


History

Uan Muhuggiag was first excavated in 1950. The Tashwinat Mummy was discovered by University of Rome Professor Fabrizio Mori in 1958. More recently, in 1982, the site was excavated again by Barbara Barich.


Stratigraphy

Uan Muhuggiag appears to have been inhabited from at least the sixth millennium BC to about 2700 BC, although not necessarily continuously. The stratigraphic sequence comprises seven distinct occupation levels. Layer 1 is the very top layer, followed by layer 1a. The middle level is labeled from 2a to 2d, with 2d being the oldest. Finally, below that, there is also a layer 3, which is further subdivided into section A, at the top, and section B, at the bottom. Layer 1 has been dated as beginning around 3800 BP, and consists of loose
aeolian sand Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erode, transport, and deposit materials ...
at the very top, slightly cemented sand and dung below that, and hearths at the bottom. Farther down, layer 2 has evidence of humified organic sand and lenses of fresh plant remains. These two layers represent the period of human occupation of the shelter. Layer 3 has even stronger humidified sand, as well as gypsum concretions. The stratigraphic sequence suggests that the shelter was inhabited during a much wetter period than today. The Tashwinat Mummy was found on the eastern side of a 160 by 80 cm. excavation, under the lowest layer of coals, where the sandstone floor showed a deliberate round excavation of approximately 25 cm. in diameter and 3 cm. deep. The mummy lay just beneath a layer of vegetable fibers.


Finds


Tashwinat Mummy

The most noteworthy find at Uan Muhuggiag is the well-preserved
mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...
of a young boy of approximately years old. The child was embalmed, positioned into a fetal position, then placed in a sack made of antelope skin which was insulated by a layer of leaves. The boy's organs were removed, as evidenced by incisions in his abdomen and thorax, and an organic preservative was inserted to stop his body from decomposing. An ostrich eggshell necklace was also found around his neck. The mummy of the child has been radiocarbon dated, via the deepest coal layer where it was found, to 7438 ± 220 BP, and, via the animal hide it was wrapped in, to 5405 ± 180 BP, which has been calibrated to 6250 cal BP. This date precedes the earliest known Ancient Egyptian mummies by one thousand years. Another date for the animal hide made from the skin of an
antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mamm ...
, which was accompanied by remnants of a grind stone and a necklace made from the eggshell of an
ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There ...
, is 4225 ± 190 BCE. In 1958-1959, an archaeological expedition led by Antonio Ascenzi conducted anthropological, radiological, histological, and chemical analyses on the Uan Muhuggiag mummy. The mummy was of a child of uncertain gender, described as having "Negroid features". The body had been eviscerated and undergone natural desiccation. One other individual, an adult, was found at Uan Muhuggiag, buried in a crouched position. However, the body showed no evidence of evisceration or any other method of preservation.


Rock art

Among other significant finds at Uan Muhuggiag are elaborate
rock paintings In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also m ...
, mostly attributed to the later occupation period of around 5000 BP. There are more than 100 rock paintings on the walls and ceiling of the shelter. The most notable of these are identified as, the Round Head paintings. They were named as such because the heads depicted were quite large, out of proportion to the rest of the body, and also very round with a distinct lack of features. Additionally, there was one painting depicting these types of figures inside a boat, which may have had a ritual or religious significance. One particular figure inside the boat was upside-down and Mori interpreted that figure as representing someone who was dead. Some of the rock art depicted cattle with herders and running hunters. There was also a painting of two oxen that was found on a rock that had detached from the wall above. The stratigraphic layer confirmed the painting to date from about 4700 BP. This provided conclusive evidence that the inhabitants of Uan Muhuggiag at that time were pastoralists.


Animal and plant remains

Animal remains found at the site include domestic cattle, sheep or goat, wild cat, wild donkey, warthog, gazelle, hare, baboon, and turtle. Domestic cattle bones were also found in the lowest layers and perhaps date from the eighth millennium BP, providing some of the earliest known evidence of
pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands ( pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anim ...
in the Sahara. Among the faunal remains in the middle layers, dated to be roughly between 5300 and 6000 BP, remains of sheep and goats appear more frequently. It has been surmised that this was probably the time period when the shelter was most actively occupied. Fruits and plant seeds were also found. There were more than 30 different species of plant seeds found during the 1982 excavations by Barich, including millet and wild melon. The seeds spanned a long period of time, with the most recent being three date seeds that were radiocarbon dated to 2130 BP, suggesting that the shelter continued to be inhabited intermittently, even after the period of main occupation and subsequent drought.


Other finds

The
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...
at Uan Muhuggiag was found mainly in the top layers. It is of the dotted wavy-line decorated variety that was common in the region during that period. There is evidence that a two-toothed tool was used in order to create equal spacing between the dots, known as the "return" technique. Other finds at Uan Muhuggiag include two hemispherical hollows dug out of the rock, measuring approximately 30 to 40 centimeters, called "kettles". These were found completely covered by deposits and are estimated to be from at least 7500 BP. Several pieces of charcoal were also found, the oldest of which were determined to be 7800 years old. They were probably used in large fireplace pits. The lower levels also uncovered backed and microlithic tools, while lithics such as flakes and arrowheads were found in the upper layers. A total of 406 stone tool fragments were found in level 2a, and 77 in the earliest occupation level of 2d.


Palaeoenvironment

Uan Muhuggiag was inhabited during the early- to mid-Holocene in what has been termed as the African Aqualithic culture complex, or "
Green Sahara The African humid period (AHP) (also known by other names) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses, ...
" period. Analysis of pollen found at the base levels of the site dating to between 7500 and 5000 BC indicates a wet savannah. Extensive samples from a number of sites indicate that tropical humid plants began to expand northward around 12,000 years ago after a lengthy dry period, eventually reaching deep into what is today the Sahara Desert. Recently,
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
satellites have been able to detect a vast network of ancient river beds and paleolakes underneath the sand dunes around Uan Muhuggiag. Rock art findings depicting elephants, giraffes, and crocodiles were discovered at sites surrounding Uan Muhuggiag. Furthermore, fish bones, fish hooks, and harpoons were found at several sites in the Sahara region. It is speculated that the dry period that continues into the present day began around 5000 BP, which led to the abandonment of the site.


Significance

Antonio Ascenzi, a pathologist, believes that Uan Muhuggiag and the surrounding area became inhabited around 10,000 BP by Negroid peoples, who followed the monsoon north. It has been suggested that some time later, around 7000 BP, people from
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
and the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
arrived, introducing pastoralism to the region. There is strong evidence that domestic livestock, principally cattle, played an important role in the lives of the inhabitants of Uan Muhuggiag. This is supported by the number of cattle bones found at the site, as well as evidence of a cattle cult and ritual sacrifice at a location in the Messak plateau, just 60 miles away. The Tashwinat Mummy found at Uan Muhuggiag was one thousand years older than the oldest known Egyptian mummy. Its sophisticated form of evisceration indicates a highly advanced society. Some scholars argue that the sub-Saharan African population living there could have had an influence on the process of mummification used in Ancient Egypt a thousand years later. Considerable debate also exists about whether the rock art found at Uan Muhuggiag along with the two mummies, signify that the shelter was a burial place or otherwise sacred. Mori was a strong advocate of this theory and believed that the site was a place where a cult of the dead took place.


References

{{Navbox prehistoric caves History of the Sahara Archaeological sites in Libya Rock shelters Rock art Mummification